Natural Horsemanship

Along the path of natural horsemanship we must strive towards make our humanness as natural as we can in each moment. For only from that position can we make a connection which is authentic and total. Through horses we can be more in touch with our own intuitive nature and more solidly grounded and centered as human beings. These qualities will enhance not only our horsemanship but our whole experience of life.

Awareness

If we are not aware of ourselves we cannot expect the horse to understand us or feel good being in our company. While learning to connect with a horse, who is a purely intuitive being, we will learn to be quiet and still in the present moment and authentic in our communication. Luckily for us horses are extremely tolerant of our human clumsiness which allows us to learn from him along the way if we pay attention to the feedback. He has no hidden agenda so it is back to us to take total responsibility

Connection

Connections can be seen in all aspects of horsemanship, sometimes you see a combination who are totally connected, harmoniously moving as one, with a communication so subtle it is invisible to the observer and that is natural horsemanship. So, much more important than the equipment we use or don’t use is the connection we create with the horse, it is not so much WHAT we do as HOW we do it.

Comunication

To make this natural connection with the horse it is obvious that we need to communicate with him on his level. For this to be possible we need to raise our awareness especially of our unconscious actions as we are continually giving him signals whether we mean to or not. The horse reads our body language and emotions which of course are both related to our thoughts. As we become more in touch with all our senses we can react with appropriate sensitivity and timing . So often problems arise in training horses just because we are doing much too much.

Nature

The ability to connect with horses is not some magical thing, we all have the inborn ability to connect with nature, after all we are a part of it, were born out of it, which is in turn part of why being around horses feels so good. So it is more a process of unlearning all the bad habits we pick up over our life, working through the physical stiffness and blocks in fluidity and harmony within ourselves to get back, energetically, to the fluid natural being we were at birth.